Portland – getting off the beaten track

When I packed for this week away in Portland, Oregon I put 2 pairs of work trousers, 4 shirts and a pair of smart shoes for work. I also packed 4 pairs of running shorts, 4 running tops and 2 pairs of running shoes. This may give you some idea of my priorities!

I travel a reasonable amount for work and for any trip longer than a day I always pack my running stuff. Not only is it a great way to have a break from the long meetings and subsequent dinners it’s also such a great way to explore a city. You get quite a different perspective pounding the streets at 6am to the one from a taxi window at rush hour.

This trip is a little different though in that I’m not staying in the city itself but rather in the suburbs and also Portland is home to some very cool trail running. I’ll always choose a trail run over one on tarmac so after a quick Google I headed out to a likely looking spot and was not disappointed.

Finding the car park I’d see on Google maps (got to love the street view photos) I headed into the forest with the rough plan of doing 6 or 7 miles and hopefully finding my way back to the car. There is something about being out in a forest like this that instantly relaxes me, sure my legs may be a bit stiff from the flights but that was quickly forgotten as I hit the first decent and needed full concentration to avoid the large drop to my left.

A perfect way to get over any jet lag and get me ready for a brunch of a massive turkey bagel and a smoothie. Even if I did manage to sprain my ankle half way around on a rather large tree root that I failed to notice. Too busy enjoying the view clearly.

P.S. One observation from today was that 90%+ of the other trail runners were women. Which is awesome but also very unusual, never seen it before. Maybe I was trespassing on a women only area? Some did give me funny looks! Either that or Sunday is the day dad’s look after the kids while their wives run?